By Lisa Beilfuss
Abbott Laboratories on Wednesday said its first-quarter earnings
rose, thanks largely to a gain stemming from recent divestitures,
although currency fluctuations weighed on sales growth.
The company said the stronger dollar shaved 7% from its top
line.
The Illinois-based health-care company has been realigning its
business in a series of deals. Most recently, Abbott filed to sell
about a third of its stake in Mylan N.V., a position it had
acquired through a partial sale of its generic-drugs business to
the Netherlands-based drug maker.
Overall, Abbott reported a profit of $2.3 billion, or $1.51 a
share, up from $237 million, or 15 cents a share, a year earlier.
The results included a $1.7 billion gain on the sales of its
generic-pharmaceuticals business to Mylan and its animal-health
business to Zoetis Inc.
Excluding items such as the gains and foreign-exchange impacts,
earnings rose to 47 cents from 41 cents.
Revenue increased 3% to $4.9 billion, but excluding currency
fluctuations and including the impact of acquisitions, sales grew
by 10%.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a per-share profit
of 42 cents and revenue of $4.85 billion.
Abbott said world-wide diagnostic sales rose 5.5% in the quarter
to $327 million, while medical-device sales rose 3.6% to $485
million.
The company said nutrition sales fell 0.6% to $685 million, as
U.S. adult-nutrition sales were hurt by competitive and market
dynamics. Abbott said it expects an improvement in the segment over
the rest of the year as it launches new products.
Adjusted for currency impacts, total international sales rose
3.5%, with emerging markets logging 13% growth.
For 2015, Abbott continues to project adjusted earnings of $2.10
to $2.20 a share.
Abbott shares, up 4.5% this year through Tuesday's close, are
inactive in premarket trading.
Write to Lisa Beilfuss at lisa.beilfuss@wsj.com
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